It was another busy year on MeasuringU.com with 50 new articles, a new website, a new unmoderated research platform (MUIQ), and our 5th UX Bootcamp. In 2017 over 1.2 million people viewed our articles. Thank You! The most common topics we covered include: usability testing, benchmarking, the 3Ms of methods, metrics and measurement, and working with online panels. Here’s a summary of the articles I

Prototypes are an effective method for incorporating early and frequent user feedback into the design process. Even low-fidelity prototypes have been found to be good predictors of usability problems and perceptions of ease compared to fully functioning products. We test client prototypes just about every week here at MeasuringU using our research platform MUIQ. They range from prototypes for major consumer brands to internal facing

UX benchmarking is an effective method for understanding how people use and think about an interface, whether it’s for a website, software, or mobile app. Benchmarking becomes an essential part of a plan to systematically improve the user experience. A lot is involved in conducting an effective benchmark. I’m covering many of the details in a 4-week course sponsored by the UXPA this October 2017.

There’s been a long heated debate within the industry about the need to certify User Experience practitioners. After all, many professional organizations—accountants, realtors, attorneys, and even ergonomists—have some sort of official certification. Certifications provide some indication that a minimum threshold of competence has been demonstrated, which in theory should help prospective employers, customers, and the industry as a whole. Certification may even be helpful with

What makes a UX practice “mature?,” how do we measure UX maturity, and does maturity really matter? In an earlier article, we discussed the history and challenges of assessing the UX maturity of companies and departments within large organizations. Existing models of maturity generally consist of different stages, with maturity progressing from unrecognized or ad hoc to institutionalized (for example, Nielsen's steps). The models also

User Experience improvements don’t just happen. You need to have the right people in the right positions to help make a better experience. It would be easy of course if you could just hire as many people as you want. Unless you’re Facebook or Google, that’s probably not an option. Instead, UX teams need to justify requests for headcounts. One way to justify and gauge

User Experience is a fast growing and popular field. It’s been listed as one of the best professions offering some of the best jobs. It’s not surprising then that people are interested in learning how to both get into the field and advance their career within it. I spoke with a few attendees at the UXPA annual conference in Toronto who were new to the

Management often gets blamed for not appreciating or understanding the importance of UX. While managers can’t be expected to fully grasp all details of UX research and design, if they (or you) are going to effectively manage the efforts, you should know best how to measure them. Here are ten key concepts for managing and measuring UX. 1. Adopt a measurement plan. A good UX

There’s a continued need to measure and improve the user experience. In principle, it’s easy to see the benefits of having qualified participants use an interface and measuring the experience to produce reliable metrics that can be benchmarked against. But in practice, a number of obstacles make it difficult: time, cost, finding qualified participants, and even obtaining a stable product to test. These challenges seem

Most UX designers I know didn’t get into the field because they have a passion for measuring. But even when numbers aren’t your motivation, at some point in your career you’ll likely need to provide evidence that a new design is actually better that a previous one. And an interface is only “better” if it’s measurably better. Maybe the new design allows users to complete